Aircraft Spruce & Specialty

In the case of the Irwins, their family business is the world-famous Aircraft Spruce & Specialty, which I've been visiting since I was a teenager back in the early 1970s, when I'd tag along with my dad on the trip down to Fullerton, the site of the original facility, and buy materials for the precision-scale R/C models we'd build---yes, we often came home with a length of actual spruce, which the company still proudly sells. It had a lot more than that back in the day, though, and today the business has diversified to the point that Aircraft Spruce is many businesses, all connected by a common heritage of service and quality.

Aircraft Spruce is known for its catalog business, but it has a great retail shop in Corona, as well as a web portal for pilots of all descriptions. The company offers a wide variety of the latest gear from the coolest brands. For pilots wondering if Aircraft Spruce has your part or accessory in stock....

Over the years, as my aviation interests and goals have grown, so has Aircraft Spruce. Today, the company has three distribution centers, in Georgia, Canada and, of course, the anchor facility in Corona, California---it moved from its cool industrial railroad freight yard location just shy of 20 years ago into the world-class Corona distribution center, which houses the company offices, the shipping center, several specialty shops (the word "specialty" is still very apt) and a retail store complete with the world's smallest runway leading up to the counter. No flight plan is necessary for your arrival, by the way. The facility is very green, with a rooftop covered in solar panels to take advantage of the Southern California sunshine.

Aircraft Spruce has its roots in homebuilding---company founder Flo Irwin started out cutting up lengths of spruce to sell to guys building planes from raw materials, which at the time was mostly steel tubing, wood and fabric. In the 1970s, when the Rutan revolution hit hard and fast, the business went nuts, and Bob joined his wife full time in the game, taking an early retirement from his job in aerospace. At one point, the company, which had an enduring partnership with Burt Rutan, was shipping hundreds of kits for the VariEze, Long-EZ and Quickie to customers around the globe. Aircraft Spruce was a proud sponsor of the flight of Voyager, the Burt Rutan-designed plane that flew nonstop around the globe.

Supplying homebuilders with materials is still a big part of the business at Aircraft Spruce, but the nature of the game has changed. More and more, homebuilders are kit builders, so the company has evolved to provide those customers with everything they need that doesn't come in the kit, and that's a lot. From tools, to paint, to wiring harnesses, to batteries to fabric to---well, you name it---Aircraft Spruce has come to be the go-to place for kitbuilders. While the company prides itself on its competitive prices, there's more to it. By shopping at Aircraft Spruce, customers can save themselves hundreds of hours of time, cutting down on sourcing, mistakes in purchasing and potentially having to redo parts of the project. When you're building your own airplane, cutting down on wasted time is as good as gold, and Aircraft Spruce prides itself on supplying just that brand of gold.

One new addition to the company is the wiring harness shop. Again, by going with Aircraft Spruce, customers can avoid the hassle and long learning curve of this very specialized (again, that word) chore, letting Aircraft Spruce's experienced harness builders do the work for them, knowing that it will be right.

The company has for many years been a leading supplier of pilot gear, with headsets from every major manufacturer and portable electronics from GPS to locator devices.

With locations across North America, a 1,000-page catalog---the first "catalog" was a single mimeographed sheet---and a customer base that seems to just keep growing, Aircraft Spruce is clearly at the top of its game. The company celebrated its 50th year in business last year, and instead of having a letdown after the yearlong party, the folks there continue to up their game. How so? Aircraft Spruce over the past couple of years has purchased several smaller companies in an effort to be able to offer something for everyone who calls the world of general aviation home, like all of us.

Visit Aircraft Spruce & Specialty.